When Mark Waid left his long-time writing assignment on DC Comics’ “The Flash,” the company apparently decided it was time to shake up the book. And that meant the rest of the creative team was shaken loose. But penciller Paul Pelletier hasn’t bounced too far: Starting this fall, he’ll be the new artist on “The Titans,” with full-time writer Jay Faerber.

“I’m pretty excited, actually,” Pelletier told the Comic Wire on Wednesday. “I never really followed DC that much when I was just reading comics É but ‘Titans’ was one of the books I always wanted to get a crack at.”

“Titans” has something in common with “The Flash” in Pelletier’s mind. “Generally, I like, for my tastes, books are that a little lighter. Not the Batman-type of darker edge. And ‘Titans’ always had that lighter edge,” he said. “After ‘Flash,’ I think ‘Titans’ is one of the top books I wanted to work on.” While many artists complain about team books, with the profusion of characters to get straight and to incorporate into the pages, Pelletier is looking forward to tackling DC’s grown-up sidekicks.

“I think it’s fun to work on a variety of characters,” he said. “You get to draw a variety of body types and facial expressions. It keeps it a little more fresh for me.” And the multitude of characters doesn’t stop there. “I was just finished up doing some new character designs for a new supervillain team they’re going to be going up against,” he said.

In addition to the new faces, one familiar DCU character will be sporting a new look: “We’re redesigning Jesse Quick’s costume.” Given that his last costume design – for the so-called “Dark” Flash – was a hit with many fans, Titans readers and Jesse Quick fans might be interested to know that Pelletier is influenced by the classics: “When I design costumes for the most part, I never got into doing the whole Imagey time designs,” he said. “I love the [Legion of Super-Heroes]-type costumes, or when Dave Cockrum would design costumes. So I guess they end up looking kind of retro.”

While his first issue (“Titans” #21) is months off, Pelletier did have some insight into the direction the series would be taking. “I think we’re going to take it a little more into the superhero action side,” he said. “I think it’s going to be a little more traditional action-type comics. É But it’s almost impossible to get away from the emotional aspect.” But you won’t hear him complaining about the long lag time between now and then.

“Normally I get on a book, and we’re already behind schedule. É It’s kind of nice to know we’re not automatically under the wire.” But there’s a bittersweet edge to the new assignment, as it comes on the heels of exiting “The Flash.” “The tough thing about it is when I knew Mark Waid was leaving,” Pelletier said. “I knew it would get a little harder. “It was a good experience. É Friends were joking with me ‘this is one of the first times you’ve left a book and it wasn’t canceled.’ It’s kind of harsh, but true.”

Working Wednesday on his first issue as well as upcoming Titans Secret Files work, Pelletier said he was looking forward to a long run on “The Titans.” “I had no idea what I was going to be working on, and I had worked with [‘Titans’ editor] Eddie Berganza a couple of times in the past. É He said ‘are you interested,’ and I said ‘oh, yeah!'”

End of titanstower.com transmission. About this author: Bill Walko is an author and artist and the man behind titanstower.com. He's been reading and drawing comics since he was 5 years old and hasn't stopped since. Read more from this author